jeffcrom

Lee Konitz & Warne Marsh - London Concert (Wave). Pretty fabulous.

Okay, here's part two: 9. Astral Project - the title track from Big Shot (APR). Tony Dagradi- tenor sax; Steve Masakowski - guitar and composer; James Singleton - bass; Johnny Vidacovich - drums; January, 2002. Several folks didn't like this track by the long-established New Orleans band Astral Project, and I can understand that. They use a lot of funk grooves, but almost always with a New Orleans flavor. Vidacovich (one of my favorite drummers for any kind of music, by the way) is playing a parade beat known as a "Saint Aug" beat. Yeah, this one is slick, but it works for me. 10. Ellis Marsalis - Monkey Puzzle from The Classic Ellis Marsalis (AFO). Marsalis - piano; Nat Perrilliat - tenor sax; Marshall Smith - bass; James Black - drums and composer; 1963. Ellis Marsalis' Monkey Puzzle LP, which is reissued on the above CD, was admired and studied by a generation of young musicians in New Orleans. Sonically, it shows the limitation of Cosimo Matassa's studio, which was still the best in town. Nat Perriliat in particular was held in awe by the other saxophonists in town. He died young; I've been unable to find the date, but I think it was around the end of the 1960's. Marsalis, Perrilliat, and Black all play on Nat Adderley's In the Bag album from the same period. 11. Chubby Jackson and His Orchetra - Tiny's Blues from The New York Scene in the 40's: From Be-bop to Cool (French CBS LP). Besides Jackson on bass and vocal exhortations, key personnel include Al Porcino - trumpet; Frank Socolow - alto sax; Ray Turner - tenor sax; Gene DeNovi - piano; Teddy Charles - vibes; Tiny Kahn - drums and composer; February 24, 1949. I was unable to find a picture of the cover of this this great LP. It was one of the first dozen jazz albums I owned, and it includes all four tracks from the only studio session by Jackson's late-forties big band. They knocked me out when I first heard them all those years ago, and they still do. Tiny Kahn's charts are excellent, and the band is both tight and spirited. These tracks have probably been reissued somewhere else, but are probably going to be hard to find. 12. Fieldwork - Pivot Point from Door (Pi). Steve Lehman - alto sax; Vijay Iyer - piano; Tyshawn Sorey - drums and composer; December 21, 2007. Fieldwork is a very interesting ongoing band. I love the interaction and the willful non-interaction they sometimes engage in. Tyshawn Sorey was the real revelation for me on this album. 13. Jone and Collins Astoria Hot Eight - Duet Stomp from Sizzling the Blues (Frog). Lee Collins - trumpet; Sidney Arodin - clarinet; Ted Purnell - alto sax; David Jones - tenor sax; Joe Robechaux - piano; Emmanuel Sayles - banjo; Al Morgan - bass; Joe Strode - drums; December 15, 1929. Lee Collins was one of those New Orleans trumpet players who were just a few steps behind Louis Armstrong - gifted, just not a genius like Armstrong. This is a New Orleans band influenced by the up-to-date sounds they were hearing on records from New York. Collins is great here, and I like Purnell's alto. Manny Sayles was playing as good as ever into the 1980's. This one has been reissued a lot, but the Frog CD has this session, with alternate takes, and all the of the Louis Dumaine recordings from around the same time. 14. Randy Sandke - Meta Blue from Unconventional Wisdom (Arbors). Sandke - trumpet, composer; Howard Alden - guitar; Nicki Parrott - bass; John Riley - drums; January, 2008. This one might surprise a lot of people - but not Allen Lowe. Most folks who know Sandke's name think of him as a traditional jazz player, but he's got a lot more than that going on. I love the way he modernizes his Bix Beiderbecke influences here. This album contains plenty of tunes a trad player might do, but also has several interesting originals, as well as Bill Evans' "Funkarello." 15. Jimmy Giuffre - The Boy Next Door from Olympia Fevrier 1960/Fevrier 1965 (Trema). Giuffre - tenor sax; Jim Hall - guitar; Wilford Middlebrooks - bass; February 23, 1960. This shows Giuffre under the influence of Sonny Rollins, just before he formed the trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow. The audience sounds somewhat confused - I don't think they were expecting such aggressive playing - but remain reasonably polite. This great CD pairs the 1960 concert with a 1965 show by a Giuffre trio which didn't otherwise record - Don Friedman and Barre Phillips. It's Giuffre at his most abstract, and the audience gets more and more hostile as the concert proceeds. It's a hoot. Thanks for listening, all. I hope you heard something new that you enjoyed. And thanks to the moderator who merged my answer threads.

Wonderful.

Something New, Something Blue (Columbia 6-eye stereo). Someone mentioned this one recently; that made me want to hear it again. For those not familiar with the album, four composers (Manny Albam, Teddy Charles, Bill Russo, and Teo Macero) were asked to write one new blues-based piece and arrange one older blues; the charts were played by two all-star bands in 1959. I'm enjoying it a bunch.

The signature Nancy Wilson song? I had no idea it went back to 1952! The depths of my ignorance are astounding. I've never heard the Nancy Wilson version.

Just finished listening to a 1969 album I was completely unaware of before I saw a copy for sale on Ebay recently: The Sounds of Broadway/The Sounds of Hollywood by Curtis Amy, on the Palomar label. Amy plays tunes from a variety of musicals and movies, including some songs I had never heard before, like "Guess Who I Saw Today," from New Faces of 1952. The album is okay, but it's not as good as it could have been. Horace Tapscott is on piano, and Onzy Matthews did the arrangements. But Amy is the only soloist, and on many of the tunes sticks pretty closely to the melody. So not great, but an interesting album.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Without further ado, here is what you heard: 1. Milt Buckner - the title cut from Mighty High (Argo). Buckner, organ; Jimmy Campbell - alto sax (not very prominent on this cut); Kenny Burrell - guitar; Joe Benjamin - bass; Maurice Sinclaire - drums; December 2, 1959. This is the best cut on this LP, which I believe has not made it to CD. Buckner is a little old-fashioned in that Wild Bill Davis kind of way, but I really like him and the group here. And Cecil Taylor mentioned him positively in an interview. 2. Matt Perrine - Muskrat Ramble from Sunflower City (Threadhead). Perrine - tuba and arrangement; Matt Rhody - violin; Connie Jones - trumpet; Mark Mullins and Rick Trolsen - trombone; Chris Kohl and Ben Schenk - clarinet; Tom Fisher - alto sax; Brent Rose - tenor sax; Don Vappie - banjo; Tom McDermott - piano; Stanton Moore - drums & tambourine; Michael Skinkus - percussion; 2006 or 2007. My favorite tuba player on the planet with some of the best musicians currently playing in New Orleans. Perrine plays all kinds of music, but with his group Sunflower City, he has been exploring a trad jazz/calypso fusion. I included this largely for the incredible tuba solo. I played this track for a classically trained friend who plays all the brass instruments; he was sure that the tuba solo was played on a four-valve, higher pitched tuba in F. He went so far as to contact Perrine, who assured him that it's all played on a plain old three-valve sousaphone. If you want to purchase this CD, your best bet is the Louisiana Music Factory. 3. Wilmoth Houdini - Black But Sweet from Poor But Ambitious (Arhoolie). Houdini - vocal, with Gerald Clark's Night Owls: Walter Bennett - cornet; Walter Edwards - clarinet; Berry Barrow - piano; Joshy Paris - guitar; Gerald Clark - cuatro; Charlie Vincent - banjo; Al Morgan - bass; August 13, 1931. Houdini was from Trinidad, but he emigrated to New York, where he had a very successful calypso career. This track flowed nicely from the previous one, and I love the fusion of calypso and hot jazz here. It was hard to chose which track to use from this excellent album. 4. Heiner Stadler - Pointed from Retrospection (Jazz Alliance). Stadler - piano and composer; Jimmy Owens - trumpet; Garnett Brown - trombone; Tyrone Washington - tenor sax; Reggie Workman - bass; Brian Brake - drums; written in 1963, recorded in 1973. Stadler, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated of jazz composers. He has only put out five albums, as far as I can tell. His writing is abstract and very subtle - he avoids the obvious. Retrospection is a collection of recordings from 1966 to 1976, including a piece for solo guitar and a big band piece. I've listed the current version; I have an older copy on Tomato, and it's also been on Stadler's Labor label. 5. Horace Henderson - Smooth Sailing from The Real Kansas City (Columbia). October 23, 1940. I have this one on a HH LP, but I took it from this great CD for the BFT. It's already been discussed quite a bit in the discussion thread - go there for all the details. 6. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - the title cut from Feeling Good (Delos). Blakey - drums; Wallace Roney - trumpet; Tim Williams - trombone; Kenny Garrett - alto sax and composer; Jean Tousssaint - tenor sax; Donald Brown - piano; Peter Washington - bass; September 8-9, 1986. An excellent latter-day Blakey album, with a mixture of new tunes and Blakey classics. I talked about some of my reasons for choosing this one in the discussion thread. 7. Sam Rivers - Sketches from Configuration (Pelican Sound, originally on Nato). Rivers - flute; Noel Akchote - guitar; 1996. This is a wonderful album, which teams Rivers with four European musicians in different configurations. (The others are Tony Hymas, Paul Rogers, and Jacques Thollot.) The CD opens with a very nice version of "Beatrice," for fans of that composition. 8. Al Sears - Mag's Alley from an RCA Victor 78. Sears - tenor sax; Harold "Shorty" Baker - trumpet; Tyree Glenn - trombone; Budd Johnson - tenor sax; Eddie Barefield - baritone sax; Johnny Acea - piano; Joe Benjamin - bass; Kalil Madi - drums; December 5, 1952. This track attracted lots of interest; I've been fascinated with it for years. It reminded several folks of Albert Ayler - that's the reaction I had the first time I heard it. I transferred it from my 78, but it has been reissued a few times over the years. Sears' personnel is largely drawn from the Johnny Hodges band, of which he was a member at the time. Okay, I've been on the road all day, and I'm tired. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow.

Big T was slightly disappointing, but tonight I went to Red's in Clarksdale, where Big A and his three-piece band was playing. I have no idea who Big A really is, but damn! The blues are alive! The music was amazing. The rhythm section, who were even more anonymous than Big A, was amazing - every groove was just perfect. This performance made my Mississippi trip worthwhile.

Sorry to hear this, although 94 ain't bad. I enjoy his music - it's austere on the surface, but it just "works."

Mississippi bluesman Terry "Big T" Williams at Ground Zero in Clarksdale.

Great, Dan. I'll put you down for the next open slot, which is July. Thanks for all the responses - we're now booked six months out, which makes me feel a lot better.

"The Woe" is intense!

Bud Shank & His Brazilian Friends (Pacific Jazz mono). Teasing the Korean would be right at home in the jeffcrom house tonight.

Cal Tjader - Soul Burst (Verve mono)

Dibs on the Steve Lacy!

Thanks, Joe; I'll put you down for June. I'll be looking out for a PM.

Hot Ptah's disc went out today. Look for it in a couple of days, Bill.

Staying up late with Bennie Moten on Victor: Kansas City Shuffle/Yazoo Blues (1926) Moten Stomp (1927)/_reverse is "Blue Guitar Stomp" by Clifford Hayes' Louisville Stompers) Kansas City Breakdown/Get Low-Down Blues (1928) South/She's No Trouble (1928). I've been on record as saying that the Moten band was corny and not very good before 1929 or so. Consider that withdrawn. Five of these seven sides are bluesy and heavy. "South" was a jukebox favorite for years, and my copy is a 1940s issue of the 1928 original. That one and the flup side are the the weakest of the bunch, but the rest are very cool.

If you would like to present a Blindfold Test for the edification and amusement of your fellow O Board members, please sign up here. If you aren't sure what a Blindfold Test is, see this thread. We have BFT presenters lined up through April, and Hot Ptah can do one later in the year. And of course, February of 2012 is covered, thanks to Thom Keith. But time flies, and I'd like to have some other presenters lined up. If you are interested, but unsure of the process, send me a PM, and I'll be glad to help. I'm also available to help with technical issues (such as uploading files) and with mailing out discs. It's a lot of fun - I hope some folks will consider doing a Blindfold Test.

Okay, boys and girls, we're coming down to the wire. You've got about one more week to post comments, guesses, derision, etc. concerning BFT #82.

Lars Gullin - Fine Together (Sonet). A 2-LP covering 1956-1958, with one 1951 session thrown in.

The Hourglass - Power of Love from The Hourglass 1967-1969 two-fer reissue (UA). This was the second album by Duane and Gregg Allman's band; the first Hourglass album is really terrible, but this one isn't bad. It's dated in spots, but also has some really nice moments.

That was the first Earl Hooker I ever heard. I soon found out that there was better stuff out there, but that was the one that started me on a lifelong love affair with his music. Yeah, musically it's good rather than great. The under-ten-bucks sealed copy I just picked up seems to be something of a find from a collecting standpoint, though. Based on the little bit of poking around the web I've done, it looks like this one usually goes for some money. I had no idea when I bought it.

Ellington, disc 8. This one is almost overwhelming - one masterpiece or near-masterpiece after another.

Earl Hooker - Sweet Black Angel (Blue Thumb)